


Dead Air

by sixbeforelunch



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-11-19
Updated: 2007-11-19
Packaged: 2018-04-12 02:19:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4461560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sixbeforelunch/pseuds/sixbeforelunch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's the end of the world as we know it. ...Sort of.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dead Air

"They're late," Sam said.

"Only been..." Cam turned the key and looked at the digital clock on the radio. "Six and a half hours."

"They would have called if they were running this late."

"So call 'em."

"I tried. While you were in the bathroom." She nodded out the window at the inaccurately labeled park office that consisted of one unisex bathroom with no running water and a map of the United States showing only 47 states.

"No answer?"

"No nothing," Sam said.

"What?"

"Cam, it didn't ring, it didn't go to voice mail, it didn't do anything."

"Well try--"

"I tried everyone. I tried Daniel and Vala and Teal'c. I tried Jack's office and his cell. I tried Daniel's office and the base phone. I even tried my brother Mark. Nothing."

Cam pulled his cell phone out of his pocked. "Says there's a signal."

"Mine too," Sam said.

Cam started dialing numbers. Vala. Jackson. Teal'c. His parents. Darrell. General O'Neill in Washington. She was right. Nothing.

"You don't think..."

Sam shrugged. "It's probably...there's probably a reasonable explanation."

"Right." Cam stared out the window at the expanse of woods. "You got one?"

"I can...I can come up with a few."

"There you go," Cam said.

"Except."

Cam looked at her. "Except?"

"Try the radio."

He tried it. Dead air. Every station. They'd had crappy reception coming up, but they'd been able to get something all the way, even if it was just old gospel music and bizarre punk rock and the rantings of a survivalist.

"Okay. Slightly more freaked out here," Cam said.

"Yeah," Sam said.

"Well. I'm sure there's a--"

\--perfectly reasonable--"

"--explanation," Cam finished.

"Right."

Cam chewed the inside of his cheek and considered their options.

It was supposed to be one last team road trip before the newly minted full bird Colonel Samantha Carter took off for Atlantis. They'd decided against Jack's cabin because the mosquitoes were something fierce in Minnesota right now and Jackson said he knew a nice place in rural New York. Cameron and Sam had come up early because they were already in D.C. Jackson and Vala and Teal'c were supposed to fly out and then drive up to meet them today.

Meet them here, at a little state park that, according to Jackson, never got any visitors and had amazing views. Meet them here six and a half hours ago.

So Cameron and Sam had spent the day hiking and eating and looking at the views and waiting. Now it was getting late in the afternoon and the rest of the team was nowhere to be seen.

If the apocalypse had waited until Cam was on vacation to hit, he was going to be pissed.

"Thinking maybe we should head back just in case," Cam said finally. In case of what, he didn't want to speculate.

"Sure," Sam said just quickly enough to betray her anxiety. Like Cam didn't have enough anxiety right now for the both of them.

Cam pulled out of the parking lot and onto one of the twisting mountainous roads they'd driven up on. The nearest town was twenty minutes away, but it wasn't much more than a bar and a convenience store. They rode mostly in silence, Sam checking her cell phone every few minutes.

Occasionally she would mutter something that sounded technical and way over Cam's head. He assumed she was working out all of the reasonable explanations for this in her head. He hoped she decided to share once she'd come up with a good one.

Cameron's fingers itched to try his own cell phone again. His parents were in Kansas, far away from any major cities. They hit the cities first, right?

Okay, time to stop that line of thought right quick. He didn't even know who "they" were. He didn't even know if there was a "they".

Cam turned on the radio just to get some background noise in the car, but he was greeted by more dead air. It made him shiver.

When they got back to the town, there were only a few cars to be seen and no people. Cam parked and got out. After a second's hesitation, he grabbed his gun out of the car. Perfectly reasonable explanation or not, when communications went dark and everyone disappeared, you got your gun.

He glanced over and saw that Sam had armed herself too. He nodded. Smart girl. That's why they were giving her a city.

Sam, smart girl that she was, even had her shoulder holster with her. 

There was something undeniably sexy about a woman with a shoulder holster. Especially since it tended to draw attention to certain areas.

_And we're focusing on the issue at hand_ , Cam thought, pretending not to notice Sam rolling her eyes at his glance to and quickly away from her chest.

The convenience store was locked and dark inside. He checked the hours. They had closed fifteen minutes ago. Perfectly reasonable explanations. Sure.

They walked across to the bar. It was empty inside. The TV was on, but showing nothing but snow.

"Don't you know it's the end of the world?"

Cam whirled around and aimed his gun. The man at the door put his hands up.

"Whoa buddy. We're all on the same side here. I'm one of you."

Cam lowered his gun but kept it ready. He saw Sam do the same. 

The man was medium height, balding and stocky. Well dressed, suit and tie, which was just strange in a town that had been filled with hunters when they'd first passed through.

"What's your name?"

"Rick. Rick Quinn."

"Rick. I'm Cameron Mitchell."

"Where'd you get the gun?"

"What did you mean it's the end of the world?" Sam asked.

The man glanced around. "Aliens," he whispered.

"Aliens?"

"Parasites. It's messed up. Had to get out of New York just to get away from them."

Cam swallowed. Sam looked at him. Aliens. Parasites. Goa'uld.

His cousin Faith was set to start college at Columbia this week. She'd almost surely be in the city by now.

"There are aliens in New York?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. Hey, can I have a gun?"

"Maybe later," Cameron said. He glanced at Sam. "What do you think?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. If we could contact..."

"Yeah." He wanted his team at his back too.

"We need more information," Sam said.

She was right. No intel and they were running blind, chickens with their heads cut off. Might go and do something crazy.

Rick looked at her. "Hey, what's your name?"

"Samantha Carter."

"Samantha. Seeing as I might be the last man on Earth and all..."

"Excuse me!" Cam said, because he was standing right here.

Sam's jaw dropped a little and she stared at Rick. "We're not even going to go there."

"Where is everyone?" Cam asked, trying to get the conversation just a little bit more on track.

"Maybe the aliens killed them? I don't know. Arabs. They kill everyone."

Cam blinked. He saw Sam start. "I--wait, what?"

"Arabs. The aliens. Parasites, every one of them. Take your money, and then turn around kill you."

"You're talking about...human...aliens. Not alien aliens," Cam said.

Rick laughed. "Yeah, man. What did you think? Space aliens? Ain't no space aliens! Just the freakin' Mexicans and the Chinese and the Arabs and the--."

"Got it," Cam said. "That's quite enough. Um."

Sam just shook her head.

Cam jumped when the TV snapped on suddenly.

"--massive communications outage for nearly two hours today. Repeating our top story, all wireless analog and digital signals were unexpectedly blocked for nearly two hours today, inconveniencing many and in many cases, risking lives. Authorities have not yet come forward with a reason for this, but normal service has returned in most areas of the world."

The TV very nearly blocked the sound of a door swinging open.

"Why do you people have guns in my bar?" Cam turned and saw a very pissed off looking bar owner standing at the entrance to the kitchen.

"Aliens," Rick said solemnly. "Can I get a beer?"

Cam put the gun away and tried to think of an explanation that wouldn't get them arrested. He glanced at Sam. "We tell no one about this."

"Deal," Sam said.

*

Of course, later, when the rest of the team had finally come out to meet them, and given their totally reasonable explanation for being late and not calling to say why, Cam slipped up and said something, and Vala got it out of them anyway. With a little help from Jackson who found the whole thing way too amusing.

"So let me get this straight," Jackson said. "You had no cell phone signal."

"No, we had a signal, we just couldn't contact anyone," Cameron said.

"Right, whatever," Jackson said, putting his feet up on the coffee table. He'd been right, it really was a nice place to vacation, even if the rent for one weekend was absurd. "And no radios or TV. And from this you concluded that aliens had taken over the world."

"You're forgetting about the guy who told us there were aliens," Sam muttered.

"Right. The racist stockbroker from New York. Who...had a nervous breakdown when he lost 1.5 million in corn futures, was it? Warned you about the immigrants?"

"He was very non-specific about what aliens he was talking about," Cam said.

"I see," Teal'c said and pulled an eyebrow. Really, this did not deserve an eyebrow. They'd been perfectly justified in their reactions.

Well. Maybe it deserved a little eyebrow.

Still. "Hey, you were the ones that caused the blackout anyway."

"Actually, SG-3 brought that alien device back. We just figured out how to turn it off," Jackson said, sounding just a little too smug about the whole thing.

"Still not our fault," Cam said.

Cam saw Vala open her mouth to say something.

"So how exactly did this thing work?" Sam asked quickly. "How'd you figure it out?"

Cam gave her a small smile of thanks for changing the subject. He was going to be hearing about this for weeks. And Sam would be a galaxy away from the teasing. That just wasn't fair. He wanted her to stay and share in the fun.

Actually, that wasn't the only reason he didn't want her to go, but he didn't want to think about all the other reasons right now. Like the fact that he wasn't entirely sure what he was going to do without her to technobabble in his general direction when things started to go to south. He found the technobabble to be oddly reassuring sometimes. And the fact that she was just fun to be around.

Cam leaned back in his chair and watched Sam pump Jackson and Vala for information.

Yep. He wasn't thinking about all of those reasons he didn't want her to go right now. 

Mostly he was just thinking about how he was going to miss her like crazy.

Later, after they'd all gone to bed, Cam got up to get himself some water and found Sam sitting out in the living room, staring into the empty fireplace.

"Hey."

"Hey," Sam said.

Cam stood at the door between the bedrooms and the living room, uncertain. "Atlantis, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Lot to think about?"

"Yeah."

"Want to share?"

"Nope." She looked over. "But...maybe later. Thanks."

"Fair enough," Cam said and went to get his water. He stopped. Turned back. "So, if Rick and I really had been the last men on Earth..."

"Not even close," Sam said.

"Right." He paused. "You...you mean you'd choose me, right?"

Sam threw a pillow at him, but she was grinning when she did it. 

Good enough.

end


End file.
